Rodgers wants to give youth a chance – luckily he has a few talented teens ready to step up.
There’s worse times to experiment with your line-up. With the staggering prospect of five games in 12 days, coupled with a snug 11 point cushion over second placed Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership table, it’s no surprise Brendan Rodgers is ready to hand a couple of his lesser known youngsters a bit of festive cheer.
“My job fundamentally coming here was to win trophies, to play attacking football the Celtic way and to bring young players through,” the Northern Irishman, who gave the likes of Raheem Sterling and Suso their first-team breakthrough, told the Daily Record.
“So we will look to see if there are any young players we can maybe look at over the next few games.
“This is what building a club is about, creating the hope for the youth players otherwise if they don’t think they can play, then why should you have an academy?”
Why indeed. But which fresh-faced Bhoys could benefit from their gaffers giving spirit?
Jack Aitchison
What were you doing at 16? Scraping together the pennies to accompany your Saturday night FIFA sesh with a two parts cheap, one part nasty local takeaway? Regardless, young Jack Aitchison was becoming the youngest goalscorer in the history of this historic club, with his first touch no less, in a 7-0 pummelling of Motherwell.
However, the teenager is yet to feature for the first team since but a mammoth fixture list means Rodgers may be tempted to give Aitchison the chance to maintain his 100 per cent scoring record in the green and white.
Anthony Ralston
Two years Aitchison’s senior at 18, Glaswegian right-back Ralston made his debut around the same time although his oft-imagined first-team bow didn’t quite go as planned. However, the only way was up from that May defeat to St Johnstone.
Eight minutes in the Betfred Cup win against Motherwell gave Ralston another taste of life at the top level and, with Christian Gamboa hardly convincing, another opportunity may well present itself at over the festive period.
Jamie McCart
He may be the high-flying son of Chris McCart, better known as the head of Celtic’s Youth Academy, but there’s no nepotism where young Jamie is concerned. At 19, the talented centre-back has already caught Brendan Rodgers’ eye, so much so that he didn’t think twice about handing him a first-team debut against, who else, Motherwell in that August cup tie.
And with regular centre-halves Kolo Toure and Mikael Lustig both on the wrong side of 30, the prospect of five games in less than a fortnight may well test those ageing limbs. Who better than McCart to step up to the plate?
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